Nvm: Local npm cache

[vvo]

Hello.

Shouldn't we have a separate npm cache folder for each node version?

So that packages caches won't step on each other.

[creationix]

nvm is nothing more than a bash script that auto-configures node with a custom prefix and messes with your path. Where does npm store it's cache? If it's relative to the node install then it's separate.

[vvo]

It is located in ~/.npm so shared accross nodejs versions that nvm installed.

[creationix]

I see. Though I'm not sure there is much value in not sharing the cache. It's all coming from the same npm repository. I guess if the cache format changed in some backwards incompatible way, then it could be dangerous. Still this seems outside the scope of nvm. I don't mess with how node or npm work. Just provide an easy way to install several versions and switch between them. Maybe there is some NPM_* environment variable we could set to move the cache to inside the local install?

[ljharb]

Do any packages vary by node version? If not, let's close this.

[vvo]

only the builded packages can vary I guess. No big deal here I think.

[denzuko]

Honestly any user can do nvm use <version> && npm config set cache .cache/node-<version> to resolve this

[kapaggar]

@denzuko Great. Was making a build box for a CI local agent. This can help in boosting npm install speed yet having different caches for different node versions that build agents fall upon.

For making these transparent to build scripts ( eg: when script clone git repos and run npm install ) making a docker wrapper with node config detection over this would allow them use diff cache.